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What an absolutely crazy last night of the NBA Regular season. Big changes in both the NBA Draft Lottery, and duh, the NBA Playoff seeding. Let's do it!
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What happened last night?
| Winner | Loser | Commentary | ||||||||||
| 1 | TOR | East | 4 | 92 | - | CHA | East | 11 | 87 | Kyle Lowry is ready for the playoffs, finished with 26/4/7/3 | ||
| 2 | OKC | West | 9 | 138 | - | MIN | West | 15 | 113 | Russell Westbrook (37/8/7/2), Enes Kanter (25/15/2/1), Dion Waiters (33/4/1/3/1) not enough to claim Western Conference playoff spot | ||
| 3 | BOS | East | 7 | 105 | - | MIL | East | 6 | 100 | I don't know how hard you are trying when you let Luigi Datome drop 22 on you. | ||
| 4 | MIA | East | 10 | 105 | - | PHI | East | 14 | 101 | Heat only played 6 guys, still won. Michael Beasley had 34/11/8/2/2. | ||
| 5 | BKN | East | 9 | 101 | - | ORL | East | 13 | 88 | Nets do it, make the playoffs! | ||
| 6 | DET | East | 12 | 112 | - | NYK | East | 15 | 90 | I expect the Knicks to get another frozen envelope this year. | ||
| 7 | CLE | East | 2 | 113 | - | WAS | East | 5 | 108 | Cavaliers win in OT, Matthew Dellavedova dtops 18 pts, 12 ast. | ||
| 8 | CHI | East | 3 | 91 | - | ATL | East | 1 | 85 | Two teams trying not to get hurt | ||
| 9 | NOP | West | 8 | 108 | - | SAS | West | 3 | 103 | Huge win, Pelicans in the playoffs! Anthony Davis with 31/13/2/2/3 ! | ||
| 10 | DAL | West | 7 | 114 | - | POR | West | 4 | 98 | Two teams trying not to get hurt, part 2 | ||
| 11 | HOU | West | 5 | 117 | - | UTA | West | 11 | 91 | Oh man . . . Let's just move on | ||
| 12 | MEM | West | 6 | 95 | - | IND | East | 8 | 83 | Marc Gasol is ready for the playoffs, had 33/13 | ||
| 13 | GSW | West | 1 | 133 | - | DEN | West | 12 | 126 | How many of these Nuggets returning next year? | ||
| 14 | SAC | West | 13 | 122 | - | LAL | West | 14 | 99 | David Stockton with 5 pts, 7 ast, 2 stl off the bench | ||
No time to explain, let's look at the Playoffs and the Draft!
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NBA Playoff Seeds:
| Western Conference | Eastern Conference | |||||||||
| Team | W | L | % | Team | W | L | % | |||
| 1 | Golden State Warriors | 67 | 15 | 81.71% | 1 | Atlanta Hawks | 60 | 22 | 73.17% | |
| 8 | New Orleans Pelicans | 45 | 37 | 54.88% | 8 | Brooklyn Nets | 38 | 44 | 46.34% | |
| 4 | Portland Trail Blazers | 51 | 31 | 62.20% | 4 | Toronto Raptors | 49 | 33 | 59.76% | |
| 5 | Memphis Grizzlies | 56 | 26 | 68.29% | 5 | Washington Wizards | 46 | 36 | 56.10% | |
| 3 | Los Angeles Clippers | 56 | 26 | 68.29% | 3 | Chicago Bulls | 50 | 32 | 60.98% | |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 55 | 27 | 67.07% | 6 | Milwaukee Bucks | 41 | 41 | 50.00% | |
| 2 | Houston Rockets | 56 | 26 | 68.29% | 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 53 | 29 | 64.63% | |
| 7 | Dallas Mavericks | 50 | 32 | 60.98% | 7 | Boston Celtics | 40 | 42 | 48.78% | |
Do you readers want a playoff preview? I can do one . . . it's not like I have Jazz games to write about now.
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NBA Draft Lottery Standings:
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So every team stayed the same . . . except for the Brooklyn Nets (who made the playoffs, and thus dropped 4 spots here), the Dallas Mavericks (who stropped one spot -- but they are at 22), the Indiana Pacers (missed the playoffs, so gained 3 spots), and the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls (gained 1 spot).
The only drama is that the Pacers and Jazz tied with the same record. This, for the second lotto in a row, the Jazz have to deal with a coin flip. Hooray!
What are the coin flip rules?
From the Wiki article:
In the event that teams finish with the same record, each tied team receives the average of the total number of combinations for the positions that they occupy. In 2007, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Portland Trail Blazers tied for the sixth worst record. The average of the 6th and 7th positions in the lottery was taken, resulting in each team getting 53 combinations (the average of 63 and 43). Should the average number not be an integer, a coin flip is then used to determine which team or teams receive the extra combination(s). The result of the coin flip is also used to determine who receives the earlier pick in the event that neither of the tied teams wins one of the first three picks via the lottery.
Yes, so the Jazz and Pacers are #11/12, and normally that's a 2.9% chance and a 2.5% chance of a Top 3 pick. Added together that's a 5.4% chance, and because you gotta half it, the two teams now have a 2.7% chance. I do expect the Pacers to get a Top 3 pick this year because of the Paul George injury they sustained during the summer in the run up to the FIBA tournament. So now we know where they'll get it from.
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Western Conference Standings (for fun?):
| Team | W | L | % | GB | GL | Streak | Last Night | Tonight | |||||||||||
| 1 | Warriors | z | 67 | - | 15 | 81.71% | 0.0 | 0 | 4 | vs | DEN | W | |||||||
| 2 | Rockets | y | 56 | - | 26 | 68.29% | 11.0 | 0 | 3 | vs | UTA | W | |||||||
| 3 | Clippers | x | 56 | - | 26 | 68.29% | 11.0 | 0 | 7 | ||||||||||
| 4 | Trail Blazers | y | 51 | - | 31 | 62.20% | 16.0 | 0 | -4 | @ | DAL | L | |||||||
| 5 | Grizzlies | x | 55 | - | 27 | 67.07% | 12.0 | 0 | 1 | vs | IND | W | |||||||
| 6 | Spurs | x | 55 | - | 27 | 67.07% | 12.0 | 0 | -1 | @ | NOP | L | |||||||
| 7 | Mavericks | x | 50 | - | 32 | 60.98% | 17.0 | 0 | 1 | vs | POR | W | |||||||
| 8 | Pelicans | x | 45 | - | 37 | 54.88% | 22.0 | 0 | 2 | vs | SAS | W | |||||||
| 9 | Thunder | 45 | - | 37 | 54.88% | 22.0 | 0 | 2 | @ | MIN | W | ||||||||
| 10 | Suns | 39 | - | 43 | 47.56% | 28.0 | 0 | -5 | |||||||||||
| 11 | Jazz | 38 | - | 44 | 46.34% | 29.0 | 0 | -1 | @ | HOU | L | ||||||||
| 12 | Nuggets | 30 | - | 52 | 36.59% | 37.0 | 0 | -2 | @ | GSW | L | ||||||||
| 13 | Kings | 29 | - | 53 | 35.37% | 38.0 | 0 | 2 | @ | LAL | W | ||||||||
| 14 | Lakers | 21 | - | 61 | 25.61% | 46.0 | 0 | -3 | vs | SAC | L | ||||||||
| 15 | Timberwolves | 16 | - | 66 | 19.51% | 51.0 | 0 | -12 | vs | OKC | L | ||||||||
| z - Clinched Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| y - Clinched Division | |||||||||||||||||||
| x - Clinched Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
There was movement last night. The Rockets went up 3 seeds, the Grizzlies went up 1, the Clippers went down 1, and the Spurs down 3. In bigger news, the Pelicans are in and the Thunder are out! Crazy, huh!
The Jazz were reeeeaaaallly close to the Suns, funny how it didn't look like that. Also, remember back in November and December when people were saying the Kings were this seasons' Suns? Haw. Haw. Haw.
All Jazz baby, next year.
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No Games tonight, the playoffs start on Saturday!
- Wizards @ Raptors (ESPN)
- Pelicans @ Warriors (ABC)
- Bucks @ Bulls (ESPN)
- Mavericks @ Rockets (ESPN)
See you all there!